A Samurai's Story
by Nakita082687
Summary: In a desperate attempt to save her brother, Kagome disguises herself, risking her own life to find him. But when she does, she is stunned with a surprise. And is untentionally falling for a jerk with golden eyes. [AU InuxKag]
1. An Act of Courage

**Okay, so here's the first chapter of my new story. Just to warn you, this story will start off a bit slow because I want to show how the character's react and think of different things. Also this story was _inspired _by Mulan, but not heavily based on it. I'm keeping it at pg-13 for now, I don't know if it will change to R we'll have to see.**

**Disclaimer: GAH! You know I don't, so don't rub it in!**

Kagome slowly began to open her eyes as the morning sunlight began to seep through the tiny cracks in the bamboo blinds covering the windows opening. Still not able to fully open her eyes, she glared in vain at the light since she only managed to blind herself momentarily.

With a small groan, she made her way off of the futon, "another _lovely_ day for chores," she stated sardonically to herself. But then a bright smile replaced the sleepy frown, "but you never know what wonderful things could happen today! Right Buyo?" she quirked in a very chipper tone while lovingly petting her obese feline friend on the head, eventually giving him a scratch behind the ear.

Kagome had grown up on a small shrine that resided in a, for the most part, secluded village. But not so secluded that it couldn't keep in contact with the rest of Japan. In fact, it was one of the closest to the capital where the emperor resided.

She lived on the shrine along with her mother, father, grandfather and younger brother. Unfortunately, her father had fallen ill with a disease that was unknown to the local miko of the village. Her father had been a soldier in the imperial army years ago during the civil war, but it caused him to suffer a strenuous life afterwards. Of course this also made her family be well known and respected.

Once she had her work kimono on, Kagome left the house to start her daily routine of chores, considering her father sick and her grandfather far too old, Kagome was left to do the outside chores. Her mother would work in the house. For the most part of her work, she would feed the chickens and horses and sweep the shrine steps, jobs that 'women could handle'. Her brother, Souta, would normally do all the heavy work.

While sweeping one of the many shrine steps, carefully getting the rocks that had embedded themselves into the tiny crevasses, Kagome looked up and noticed the tall Sakura tree that rested in the center of the main courtyard of the shrine.

She loved that tree. Every year, all the blossoms were perfect; none would perish or fail to bloom. And when the sun was bright, like today, the tree practically glowed, each blossom illuminating at the surrender of the sun's rays. It was so unearthly, Kagome often wondered of the tree had been made by the god's themselves.

Suddenly one of the tiny blossoms floated down from the high branches of the tree, landing in Kagome's open palm.

She sighed as she stared at the little silky pedals; it was a huge reminder of the day to come. Tomorrow, Kagome would be done up to be a bride, beautiful and elegant. Two of which, Kagome didn't believe she was.

Apparently, the young emperor was in search of a bride, and planned on looking all over the small island of Japan to find the perfect woman. Her mother, believing she had a chance, convinced Kagome to compete for a place next to the emperor in his bed, that alone grossed Kagome about. 'And if the emperor doesn't choose you, one of the higher ranks of the imperial soldiers will surely have you for a wife', her mother had said. Even though Kagome would have rather found a husband through love, she would do this for her family and their honor, and what a honor boost it would be, to be the wife of the emperor.

In truth, Kagome should have been married off 3 years ago, when she was 14, a fine young woman in most eyes. But being who she was, she refused. She would like to be free from having to marry, and really just this kind of life at all. Maybe someday, like the sakura blossom, she would break free from the branches that held her down and float to new environments and into the hands of someone who truly adored her for who she was. Instead of withering and being set free when there was no life left for her.

"I hope tomorrow never comes," she sighed to the flower before gently blowing it off her hand.

Looking up once again from her reverie, Kagome saw her brother. He was about to leave the shrine gates, "Souta!" when he turned around to look at her, she knew she had his attention and began to run over to him.

Souta was two years younger than she was, but of course he looked much older. He was about 5'11" and had grown into a very handsome young man. He had been training to be in the imperial army, which Kagome had great confidence in; after all he was their father's son, so he was born of good lineage.

"Where are you going? You should be resting now after coming home yesterday from that long trip!" she questioned, surely he wouldn't be leaving already?

"I have to train, don't you want me to be successful in defeating those samurai?" Souta loved his sister dearly, but she always questioned him and worried so much that it annoyed him.

Kagome hesitated with her answer for a second, it was almost like he was scolding her, "of course Souta, but couldn't you stay home for a while longer...you could train with me!" she added the last part on quickly, why not? Kagome wasn't completely devoid of sword skills, Souta had taught her a few basic katas a while back, ever since, she had practiced herself, trying to get better. She wouldn't be much of a match against Souta, but surely she could help?

"I've already told you before, it's better for me to train alone, it's much easier for me to concentrate and focus," his tone was clipped, as if he were talking to a small child, not his _older _sister.

'Well that's not going to help you when you're in battle,' Kagome snorted to herself, careful not to say it out loud. If a woman were to insult a man in any way, she could be killed if the man wishes true this was her brother, but if some other man were around and heard her, she would probably not be breathing at the moment.

"So how long do you plan on leaving us for this time?" she had to ask the question, she hated when he left like this. Sometimes he would leave for four days, two weeks, sometimes even a month with no word from him. It always made Kagome wonder what kind of training Souta did.

"Actually this time, I think I may go straight to the capital and join the army, instead of waiting another two weeks for them to come by the pick up new recruits," he said this with a smug smile, "training with the military will give me more experience, then we can destroy those menacing samurai before they even see us coming!"

Kagome smiled at her brother's words, he always had such admirable confidence, "I suppose that would be more efficient"

He gave her a quick nod, "wish me luck, ne?"

She gave him a small sisterly peck on the cheek, giggling when she saw him blush, then she gave him a bone crushing hug, with a burst of strength Souta didn't know she possessed. She realized that if tomorrow were to really happen, she may never see him again, and being in the military, he could be gone for years, "Gambatte!" she resisted the urge to cry.

Waving to him as he descended the shrine steps, she let a solitaire tear run down her cheek, 'goodbye Souta'

With one turn around the corner, he was gone. Soon he would be part of the imperial army, and he would be helping to exterminate those pesky samurai from Japan.

For the past three years, a samurai militia had been threatening the emperor and actually attempting to kill their young ruler. From what she knew, the samurai had no reason for killing the emperor, and why should they? Emperor Naraku had been kind to all the people of Japan, and a great ruler.

The imperial army hadn't succeeded in defeating the samurai militia, because the samurai lived far off into the mountains and knew it quite well. The army would send a medium sized squadron of soldiers, but they would all be slain, due to the disadvantage of not knowing the land. And no one really knew how many of the samurai there were in total.

So now the army was building itself up, and then would declare war on the militia. If it weren't for those samurai, Souta would have no reason to join the army, at least not for many years.

She hoped Souta killed every last one of the samurai, so that the threats and terrorism of innocent villages could be stopped, and of course he come home safe. She knew Souta would sacrifice himself for the people he loved, Japan. Kagome wouldn't know what to do if anything happened to him, but she was sanguine that he would be okay.

Kagome would have been glad to join the army with him, unfortunately, women were unable to join the army or handle weapons for that matter, or else they would be killed. What wonderful lives women led these days, basically all harmless, defenseless, housewives, with a slight exception for Kagome.

"Kagome, are you day dreaming again?" she heard her mother call out from behind.

She quickly turned around to face the older woman, trying to fix her posture, "no okaasan, just...taking a break from chores," surely her mother knew that Souta was leaving to go to the army early? Possibly, but her mother always had a knack at reading her children's minds, he possibly didn't tell her but either way she would have respected Souta's decision, she was like that.

"Don't worry Kagome, I'm sure he'll be back sooner than you think," so she did know, "I've never known you to take breaks, what will the emperor think when he finds out he's to marry a slacker?" her tone was very light-hearted.

Instantly soothed by her mother, Kagome smiled, "Mama, you _know_ the emperor won't pick me"

"Kagome, don't say such a thing! You'll jinx yourself and then you'll never be married off!" her mother scolded, half laughing in the process.

'If only,' Kagome sighed.

"Anyway dear, would you mind going to the market and picking up a few things for me?"

"Of course," she replied happily and after receiving her instructions, she was down the steps and off to the market.

She had always hated going to the market place, it was usually so crowded that you could barely see the nose in front of your face sometimes. And being an eligible young woman, she would get the occasional lecherous stare from men, be they young or old. She really hated it there.

Today wasn't that bad, there was still an outrageous amount of people there, but tolerable. Briskly walking down the gravel clad road, she scanned her eyes over several stands, she was to buy a bag of rice, leek, tofu, and a few other choice items for her mother.

After getting most of her groceries, all was left to get was the leek. 'Ha! Almost a brand new record, now all I have to find it that –', she just spotted the end of her mental sentence, 'leek'.

With a bright smile on her face at her perceptiveness, she began to pace herself over to the waiting vegetable, but she was surprised suddenly when she saw Souta in the corner of her eye, not too far away from her.

"Souta?" she squinted a bit to make sure she had guessed right, 'why is he here? I thought he left?'

Then a slough of screams could be heard behind her, turning around to see what the commotion was all about, Kagome saw that plenty of people were running towards her! Unable to get out of the way of the charging villagers in time, she was pushed this way and that as they ran past her to 'safer' grounds.

'What's going on!?' she screamed inside her head.

"The samurai are attacking! Run for your lives!" she heard one woman scream, almost deafening her.

'Samurai'

After all the people had passed, Kagome raised her head and almost fell backwards with a huge gasp.

There was a man on a horse, a huge black stallion to be exact. She was almost unable to decipher any details, since his adjacency was about 30 yards away. The first thing she noticed was his long silver hair blowing in the wind, 'how unnatural'. The man was swinging a sword around as he rode the stallion. He was a samurai, she couldn't tell by his clothing, since he wasn't wearing the traditional samurai attire, but his posture and skill revealed all.

That's when Kagome noticed that she was the only left standing in that part of the street, and he was coming towards her...with a sword. Her first reaction was to scream, but she was unable to do so, she just stood there like a frightened animal, waiting for the inevitable to happen.

"Don't worry miss, I'll protect you!" one of the imperial guards of her village stepped in front of her, sword drawn.

As soon as the silver haired man came close enough, he easily slashed the poor soldier across the chest. With a small splay of blood hitting her face, Kagome gasped as the body hit the hard ground in front of her. She had never seen anyone die.

Breathing heavily, Kagome managed to raise her head to face the assailant. Chocolate brown was melted in with sweet honey gold.

Kagome was now at a total loss of movement, she was unable to steer her eyes away from his. His intense gaze seemed to be staring straight into her very soul, mesmerizing her.

'What am I doing!? He just killed a man right in front of me! That poor man,' Kagome cut her stare from the samurai, with a sympathetic look to the corpse, dead before her. When she looked back up at the silver haired rebel, he was smirking at her, was he going to kill her next? 'He's trying to scare me'. Not willing to go down without a fight, Kagome's innocent expression turned into a defiant glare. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pouted, ready to give him a piece of her mind.

The sudden mood change surprised the ruthless killer for a second, but he soon smirked again, and then winked at her!

'How can he have the audacity to treat me like some whore!' Kagome was about to show him that she wasn't just any woman he could look down upon, be he on a horse or not, but her attack was cut short when the black beast brought itself up on it's hind legs, causing Kagome to fall backwards on her butt, "ow"

"Hyah!" the man yelled aloud pointing his sword forward and began to gallop off passed Kagome and further on through the street, Kagome watched him run off and finally noticed something that she should have when she had first saw him, he had ears! Silver hair, golden eyes, and dog ears...

'A demon!' she thought frantically, the next thing she was met with was a dozen or so more horses, all occupied by men, both demons and humans, all following the audacious creature that had just left her. Kagome knew that she had to get out of there but an impetuous sensation came over her, she was forgetting something...'Souta!'

Kagome swiftly turned around and began to run back to where she had last seen her brother, there was so much debris and dust in the air due to all the horses she could barely see anything.

Her eyes finally adjusted to pick out the forms of three people not too far away, she managed to pick out Souta and a bright smile spread over her face, 'he's alright', "Sou-"

She didn't get the chance to finish her call when she saw was happened next. Her brother was punched in the face by an unknown man then he was hoisted onto the black horse that was being ridden by the _demon_

She witnessed as all the samurai began to storm down through the town and out of sight, 'no...Souta' there was nothing Kagome could do as for the second time that day a tear streamed down her cheek.

Kagome had run home to tell her parents and hopefully get help for Souta. She almost wished she hadn't, her mother was grieving terribly over her 'dead' son, there was no way to tell that Souta had been killed, the rest of her family believed so.

Since that it would next to impossible to ever get Souta back, no one would agree to go and help retrieve him. Her father was far too weak to even attempt to go. Kagome sat in her room absently petting the cat that sat in her lap; it was the only form of comfort she could conjure.

"Souta must be alive," Kagome began to motivate herself, "he can't die...he can't," her voice was beginning to crack due to all the tears welling in her eyes. She herself couldn't picture her life without Souta, even if she were married and not be able to see if often since he would be in the military, at least she'd have known that he was alive and well and still in a world that she co-existed with him.

Then Kagome was struck with a noumenon, 'I'll go find Souta myself'. Not one of the smartest ideas and she knew that she might regret it later, but going by her own morals, she couldn't just sit there and do nothing while her brother could be alive and being tortured by those ruthless rebels. She would do anything for her younger brother, he would have done the same for her...except he didn't have the gender problem that she did.

She would have to dress up as a man to get out of the village safely and undetected.

Kagome silently padded down the hall of the house, careful not to wake anyone up in the house. She finally came to her father's armoire, a place where she had only looked into but had never entered. As was said before, women were forbidden to touch a weapon.

Drawing her father's sword from it's sheath, she placed it up to her long ebony tresses and her face scrunched up in sacrosanct pain as she slashed through them easily with the sharp blade, watching as every thread cut fell in silence to the floor. She then proceeded to tie her hair up in a top not, that most men wore.

She managed with great difficulty to put on the armor, 'how do they manage?!' she got through it eventually when she got used to the weight of her new attire. She finally added the final touch when she incased the sword once more at her side.

After leaving a small scroll left out for her family explaining where she had gone, Kagome saddled up her father's best horse she took one last look at the sakura tree, nodding her head and ripped out of the shrine courtyard with incredible speed and a determination that could rival anyone. The night was dark and the rain began to poor down, soaking Kagome to the bone, 'I'm coming Souta.'

Looks like tomorrow would not come after all.

**Meh, there you go, I told you starts out slow but it plans to pick up. If this story gets a good reaction, then I'll continue on, if not then well...I guess it won't haha, I have other ideas for fanfics that could probably be better **

**If you liked it please REVIEW and tell me, great motivation for a next chapter you know, if you didn't like it, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated **

**Ja mata ne!**


	2. Sex Problems

**Okay, I've made it to the second chapter and we get to introduce a few more characters into the story! I actually didn't think the story would really get anywhere, but I'm having fun writing it, so I'm sure it will continue!**

**I'm sorry for such a late update, believe it or not this should have been up last Wednesday, but I was feeling a bit lazy when it came to typing, lol. Plus I didn't get a lot of reviews so I felt I didn't need to work too fast hint hint**

**Thank you so much for reviewing! Means a lot sniff and you've motivated me to write this chapter! huggles**

**Disclaimer: pwsh, sure I do . **

**A Samurai's Story**

**Chapter 2: Sex Problems (gender not the action! Haha)**

Kagome continued to ride on through the zig-zagging paths of the mountains. So far she hadn't encountered anyone who had any doubt of her being an imperial soldier, and it was a bonus that she didn't have to deal with any of the real soldiers, that definitely wouldn't have been pretty.

But she managed and she was quite proud of herself that she had managed to pull it off.

As the horse continued a steady trot, Kagome was able to scrutinize her surroundings for the first time. There were an abundance of trees, all very tall and intimidating, but also very beautiful.

While her thoughts wandered off, she narrowed her eyes, why _had_ the samurai takes her brother? Surely they couldn't have known he was to be a soldier, it wasn't even an obvious fact that he was to become one! And even if they _did_ know he was to be in the imperial army, why take him rather than kill him? It would be pointless to take him for ransom, the emperor wouldn't pay to get back an unofficial soldier.

This was like a huge puzzle to Kagome...she hated puzzles, she was never any good at them. But she wasn't about to compare such a serious situation to a mere puzzle.

She sighed as she rethought all her previous questions in her head again.

Kagome noticed a small pond up ahead to the right of the path, she decided she would let the horse take a small rest, plus she was a little parched and really needed to drink something.

When she halted the horse to a stop by the shore of the pond, she tried with incredible ease to get herself of the beast. Of course with her luck, when she brought her leg over the horse, the other foot decided to get hooked in the saddle and Kagome was sent sprawling down the ground, making an impressive face-plant in a mud puddle.

Kagome groaned as she lifted her body over halfway with her hand and let herself fall on her back, then stared up at the horse looking down at her, as if to be laughing at her misfortunes, at least that's what she figured.

"What are you looking at?" she huffed and then tried to get herself back up. It was hard to get up due to the disadvantage of her armor still being very heavy and damp from the rain. But it had ceased raining thankfully, so it was slowly drying off. She heaved herself up into a sitting position with great effort, "ugh, why did I decide to do this again?" she was talking to the horse of course, 'Kagome, your talking to a horse of all things!', "Well, it was a rhetorical question anyway so don't worry about answering any time soon", she glared at the innocent animal as it begun to drink the pond water.

Just as she managed to gather enough strength to pick herself fully off the ground, she was confronted by a small weight on her chest and a huge pair of emerald eyes.

"AAH!" she screamed falling backwards on her back once again.

"Mr. Soldier, sir! You have to help me please!" a tiny voice squealed, jumping up and down on her chest.

When she looked up to see where the voice was coming from, she saw a very tiny boy with big worried eyes, then...she saw the tail.

"Demon!" with speed like lightning, Kagome paced back on her hands, and the small demon tumbled backwards between her legs and then landing on the ground. She managed to get up on her feet and draw her sword.

The small youkai rubbed his little head better from his brief assault, "what'd you do that for-", he looked up to a blade's point to his nose, "gah! What are you doing, aren't you a soldier? Your supposed to protect me!"

Kagome's glare at the little demon softened, 'I forgot that I was dressed in soldier armor', which was a pretty big miss since she had just been complaining about it. Kagome didn't normally associate with demons, she had always been afraid of them, of course, she had never gotten to know one either, ' well, he is kind of cute'. She lowered her weapon and sheathed it once more, "sorry, you just frightened me", Kagome made a small mistake when she said this...she forgot to disguise her voice. After realizing what she had done, she had a small coughing fit.

The small child gave Kagome a very curious look, raising one of his little eyebrows, "hey, your not a soldier are you?"

Kagome's eyes widened a bit, "of course I am, I'm wearing the imperial armor!", she said this a bit quickly, she couldn't be found out about _now_, and by a child no less, 'come on Kagome, get a hold of yourself, he's a child, he shouldn't have the power to make you nervous'

'Yeah right,' Shippou thought to himself. He watched as the 'soldier' bent down over the water to watch the mud out of his hair, then her saw a bug out of the corner of his eye, and a sly smirk appeared across his normally innocent features.

Grabbing another handful of water to wipe in her hair, Kagome's face scrunched up when she saw her other hand full of the filth her hair had fallen into, 'gross'. Without any notice, Kagome looked up and was greeted with the ugliest insect she had ever seen, "Waah!" she extracted a rather high pitched womanly scream, while jumping backwards.

"Ha, I knew it! Your a woman!" the little boy had a wide grin plastered on his face and was pointing his finger right between her eyes.

'This can't be happening,' Kagome gave his accusing finger a deadpan look, before running a hand through her loosened, filthy hair, 'found out by a child'

"Don't worry, I don't have anything against cross-dressers," the tiny demon shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm not a cross-dresser!" Kagome retorted.

Shippou raised a suspicious eyebrow at the strange woman, "I see now. So your mate joined the army and since you couldn't bare the thought of living without him, you're dressed as a man so you can be together," he folded his hands up to his chest in mock romanticism, "how romantic"

Kagome gave the demon child an odd look from his actions, "not exactly, no"

The red headed child's eyes went wide, "are you one of those crazy women my mother told me about once th-"

"NO!" Kagome's left eyebrow was now making a small ticking motion, here she was trying to rescue Souta, while this little _beast_ pestered her with abnormal questions, "I'm not a cross-dresser, or a woman trying to find her...mate, or a crazt lady! I'm just trying to get my brother back," her last sentence was a bit crestfallen.

Shippou's face fell, "oh," and being the very nosey kit that he was, "where is he?"

"He was taken by a group of Samurai," Kagome was staring at her reflection in the smooth surface of the pond.

"You mean the Samurai that live up in the mountains?!" the small kit jumped in the air to emphasize the question. He was answered when Kagome gave a small nod, "have you found him yet?"

Kagome let out a depressed sigh, the last thing she wanted to talk about was her possibly murdered brother, "shouldn't you be with your parents or something?" When she looked down at him for an answer, the little boy had his head hanging so that his bangs fell in his eyes, "what's wrong?"

"My parents are dead, they were killed by a really mean demon, I managed to get away, that's why I came to you for help," his normally perky voice had turned morbid.

Kagome felt tears beginning to sting at her eyes, 'the poor thing,' she would never have guessed it, but it seemed like they both had similar problems, "well, you can come with me if you'd like, but I can't really garantee your safety. Once I get my brother, I can tell the guards about your parents when we get home and see what they can do"

A huge smile replaced the frown on the boy's face, "Really!? I can?" When she nodded, he made a big leap, landing on her shoulder, "Thank you, Okaasan!"

"Okaasan?" Kagome sweat-dropped.

"Yeah, you can be my new mother! My name's Shippou!"

'I guess being so young, the thought of a replacement mother doesn't bother him, I suppose I could take care of him until I find him some suitable parents,' she blew a stray hair from her face, "I'm Kagome," 'at least I'll have some company'

They had been travelling for about an hour together now. It was around midday, so the sun was far up in the sky and beaming down on them, but at least they knew where they were going.

Shippou said that he had known the hidden village that Kagome was talking about and could show her the way. Seemed Shippou had lived in these mountains all his little life and knew his way around quite well.

They were quite far into the forest now and the sun was beginning to get blocked out by all the tall trees, "are you positive you know where we're going Shippou?" Kagome asked a bit nervously, being in such a secluded area, she felt like she was being watched.

"Of course I do," he said reassuringly, "are you afraid Okaasan, don't be scared I'll protect you!" then he puffed out his chest.

Kagome giggled a little, "Oka-"

She found herself flying off the horse and hitting the ground within the next second. Shaking her head out of her stupor, she looked towards her shoulder where she felt the push and saw a huge arrow sticking out of her armor. She gasp at the shear size of it, luckily her armor was too thick for the arrow to penetrate to make skin contact.

When Shippou got his little body back on his hind legs and saw that Kagome was also down, a faint scent reached his nose, "whose there!? I'll come and get cha if you don't show yourself!" although Shippou didn't have the most intimidating voice in existence at least he tried.

"Well, well, look what we have here. An imperial guard travelling trough the mountains...alone," a rather husky voice stated.

Kagome pulled the arrow out of her armor and scrambled to her feet to the best of her ability (the armor was heavy), she was looking down and noticed that she was practically toe to toe with someone, she took an unconscious step back.

Now she got a good look at the man, he had long black hair pulled back into a braid, falling over his shoulder and seemed to bare some cross-like symbol on his forehead.

'Is he a Samurai?' was Kagome's first thought, she figured for a second that she could probably take him, but that figuration soon flew out the window when she looked pass him for a second to break the eye contact and saw three other men standing further behind.

The man looked at her thoroughly for a quick second, then at Shippou, who was glaring up at him, "so you plan on taking on the militia alone do you?" he said finally after figuring out it was just the two of them, them he gave her a smirk at such stupidity to do so.

Kagome thought hard for a moment and realized that they must be samurai scouting the mountains, just her luck that they managed to find her...

'There's no way I can take on all four of them' she'd be lucky if she could handle one, she narrowed her eyes a bit, his smirk was really getting to her, ' but maybe they could lead me to Souta!' her eyes widened at the thought.

The man's eyebrows narrowed again, "are you just going to stand there and gape at me, or do you even speak"

"I've come to join the Samurai of these mountains," she said quickly, making her voice deeper.

He raised an eyebrow, "yeah? You look like it," he scoffed, and a few laughs could be heard behind him.

"I'm leaving the army! This was the only armor I had to protect myself!" Kagome protested, in hopes that he would believe her and not slice her through.

"Take out your sword," he said simply.

"B- but I just said-"

"You'd better be prepared to defend yourself!" he drew his sword quickly.

Kagome grabbed her sword and managed to block his first offense, shutting her eyes at the loud clash. She was unfortunate enough to not block the second and his blade was at her neck, 'damn'.

He gave one quick laugh, "good thing you've come to join us, if you'd stayed in the army you probably would've been the first to die!" he put his sword away and began to walk away, laughing and shaking his head, "none of those imperial bastards know how to use a sword," two of the others laughed.

She was just about to protest against his insult, but instead someone's face popped up in front of her own. She jumped at the sudden surprise. The man had deep violet eyes and short black hair tied back at the nape of his neck. He was quite handsome to say the least, then Kagome took at his...robes? 'A monk?' she raised her eyebrow.

"Hello, I'm Miroku," he made a small bow, then gave her a very charming smile, "It's always nice to know there are more who want to help us"

Kagome continued to stare, he was after all one of the most handsome men she'd ever seen.

When she failed to answer him, Miroku stared back, 'what's wrong with this guy?' he then smiled again, "don't mind Bankotsu, he's a bit deranged today," he made a friendly gesture to said samurai, "what's your name?"

Kagome come back to earth when she realized she was being asked a question, "Oh...Kag- er- Kyo!", 'great Kagome, you almost blew it'

"Kyo?" Miroku repeated for verification.

"Akimine Kyo," well she officially had her fake name, now she just had to remember to use it. She made a small bow to be friendly.

"Come on Miroku, stop being a woman and making small talk!" Bankotsu shouted to them from a ways further in the woods, "and I heard what you said about me!"

"Coming!" then a realization dawned on him, "I'm not a woman, I'm quite manly!" he shouted back, "Do I seem womanish to you?"

Kagome quickly shook her head no.

"Good," he gave a small nod then glared back at the retreating Bankotsu, within the next second he was giving Kagome a charming smile again, "well then, let's get going"

Kagome went to get her horse, but soon found out it was missing, "hey, where'd my horse go?"

"Bankotsu took it, don't worry you'll get it back...hopefully"

"What do you mean '_hopefully_'?" she asked when she ran up to walk beside him, with Shippou riding on her shoulder.

"Well, first we have to take you to Sesshoumaru, then if he likes you and trusts you, you'll be one of us...then you can get your horse back"

'Sesshoumaru', "and if I'm not acceptive?" she edged on, afraid of what the answer would be.

"Well that's an east one, we kill you!" he laughed.

Kagome gasped as her eyes widened, "why can't they just let me go!?" she almost lost her command on her voice.

Miroku looked at her with a thoughtful expression on his face, "well, if we let people we didn't accept go, that could earn us an enemy, and they could tell the _emperor _where we reside and we can't have that now can we?"

She just gaped at him, "do you have any compassion for life?"

He raised a delicate eyebrow at her, "you just left the army, did you not kill when you were ordered?" Kagome thought a second, remembering she _was_ suppose to be leaving the army, "besides, we're samurai, not priests"

Kagome took a look at his robes again.

"I'm a monk, not a priest," he answered her un-verbalized question with a knowing finger in the air.

'That still doesn't mean you go around killing people,' she thought, "But-"

"Soooo, whose the little guy?" he cut her off before she could finish what she was saying in attempt to change the subject.

"He's my..."

"I'm he- his guardian!" Shippou quipped, almost slipping with his words.

"Guardian?" once again he raised an eyebrow at Kagome, expecting an answer. Making sure he heard right.

"Yeah..." Kagome replied, but Miroku was still giving her a funny look, "I have to wait for him to grow up an get bigger"

"Oh," Miroku said in comprehension, 'we really have picked up a nutcase'

After a couple more hours of walking, they finally made it to the village, unfortunately, Kagome didn't have much time to look around since the one they called Bankotsu pushed down heavily on her shoulders until she was on her knees, 'ow', she tried he best to keep in any painful cries.

Miroku came down by her face, "don't worry, they put you in this position so that if your not welcomed here, it's easier to kill you, unless they deem you worthy of defending yourself," he smiled at her bewildered expression, "well, it's quick! Would you _rather_ suffer? I'll be back in a second"

Kagome just stayed were she was, she could hear Shippou's muffled protests behind her, what would happen to him? She was afraid to look up, she could just feel their eyes burrowing into her and whispers travelling around.

Several minutes later, she heard two pairs of footsteps coming towards her, 'must be Miroku and that man...Sesshoumaru was it?'

When they stopped in front of her she looked up. Well, Miroku wasn't there. Both of them had long silver hair and amber eyes The one on the right was glaring down at her, she noticed that he had dog ears placed on top of his head and she recognized him as the demon that led the samurai into her village the day before.

The other, who was a bit taller than the dog-eared demon was wearing a very stoic expression. If Kagome could describe him in one word it would definitely be 'beautiful'.

"So you plan to leave the army to join us?" the tall man asked, his voice was deep and smooth.

Kagome wasn't positive on which one of them was this Sesshoumaru, so she just nodded her head yes.

The shorted of the two scoffed, "we already have one of them, plus this one doesn't even have the decency to talk, just kill 'em. We don't need him"

Well, Kagome knew off the bat that she wasn't liking this guy, and she prayed to Kami that he wasn't Sesshoumaru, but with her luck he probably was, with a hesitation she finally spoke, "yes, yes I would"

The one with the dog ears laughed, "now it speaks! Pathetic!"

Kagome looked to the other one, waiting for an answer, 'I can't get this far and fail'

The taller of the two drew his sword, "I suppose your right, little brother"

Kagome closed her eyes in instinct, 'kami-sama, kami-sama....'

Souta came out into the crowded field to see what was happening, 'they're killing someone?', when he got closer he saw the armor and recognized it immediately, 'father?'

Then he got a better look at the person's features, "Kagome," it was an almost inaudible whisper. He saw Sesshoumaru raise his sword up into the air, "No!"

**Meh, there you go chapter 2. Not much of a cliffhanger...or is it? Did you like it? Hate it? Do you think I portrayed Miroku fairly good? He may have been a bit OOC.**

**Please review if you'd like to read the next chapter! The more reviews the faster the update!**


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